Hey all, Pastor John here. Thanks for tuning
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Now let's dive into this week's message. Amen.
Well, it's great to have one service this morning
to all be together here, a packed house. We had
to add some extra chairs just to make sure there
was a little bit of elbow room. But I did want
to let all of you parents know that we totally
know that your kids are here and totally expect
them to not be able to sit still. So don't feel
any guilt or shame or anything like that whatsoever.
We're excited to have them in here. And we're
just going to embrace it all, right? All right.
Yeah. Do you agree to that? All right, good.
Good, good, because I just don't want any parents
thinking, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet. I mean,
you can shush them a little bit, but we're not
worried about it. If you have your Bibles, I'll
encourage you to turn over to Matthew chapter
nine. That's where we've been for the last few
weeks in our Breaking In series. Matthew chapter
nine. And today we're going to finish off the
chapter with verse 35 through 38. Matthew nine,
35 through 38. So I'm going to read. The word
is going to be up here on the screen as well.
Matthew nine, 35 through 38. Jesus continued
going around to all the towns and villages, teaching
in their synagogues, preaching the good news
of the kingdom and healing every disease and
every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he felt
compassion for them because they were distressed
and dejected like sheep without a shepherd. And
then he said to his disciples, the harvest is
abounding or abundant, but the workers are few.
Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to
send out workers into his harvest. This is God's
word. Amen. Amen. Any, any fellow people watchers
out there, anyone that enjoy watching people
park yourself on a bench somewhere and just watch,
watch the different kinds of people. The well
-put -together people, the weirdos, the weirder,
the better, right? Just go sit in an aisle way
at Walmart's. There you go. Take a gander. Well,
I enjoy people watching. I love to people watch.
You can put me on a bench on the side of a room
or in a park or at an airport or wherever, and
I'll just watch people all day get lost in all
that's going on. And whether it's a mall or a
stadium or an airport, actually, speaking of
travel, me and my wife went through Japan on
our way to Guam a little bit ago. And when we
were in Japan, we decided we were going to venture
out beyond just the airport. And so we're like,
well, when in Japan, you take public transit,
right? So we're like, well, let's just hop on
one of those little train things. We go down
to the train area, and oh my goodness, have I
never seen more people in my life crammed into
an underground space. And not just that, it's
like, have you ever heard of a murmuration? A
murmuration is when birds fly together and they
kind of flock together like this swarm, right?
Well, that's what it looked like, but it was
people. They all knew exactly what to do. We
had no idea what to do. And I started to panic.
I'm standing in the middle of this sea of people
swarming around us. Everyone knows exactly where
they're going and they're moving at light speed.
And we're standing there, and if I take one step
forward, I'm gonna get crushed, right? Well,
that was a place where seeing a lot of people
was not all that fun, actually. People watching
in that moment was not all that fun because it
was overwhelming. It was happening so fast and
the crowd was so great that I couldn't pay attention
to any one person. I just had to get. out of
there. And sometimes that can be the case with
crowds. I know some of you aren't people watchers,
some of you aren't even crowd people, right?
You get in a crowd and you get a little anxious,
right? A little overwhelmed. And I think that
is oftentimes the feeling that we get, especially
when we begin to try to connect with the people
in the crowd, but we realize there's just so
many people. And so oftentimes as a human, we'll
somewhat detach, we'll begin to drift away from
the crowd and we'll think, this is not my problem,
these are not my people, it's just a crowd. In
fact, most of us have learned at some point or
another how to tune the world out just to survive,
right? Tune the world out just to survive. But
you know, Jesus, he doesn't tune out the world.
And Jesus doesn't tune out the crowd, what he
does is he leans in. He leans in and Matthew
gives us this kind of short snapshot of Jesus's
ministry He says that he's teaching and he's
proclaiming the kingdom of God He's healing every
disease and every affliction and then he says
when he saw the crowds He didn't just see statistics.
He didn't just see a problem. What Jesus saw
was people Jesus isn't some detached spiritual
guru who's floating above the mess. He is emotionally
invested. He sees the lostness under the smiles,
the desperation behind the quiet, the wounds
behind the walls. The God of creation took on
flesh, the flesh of humankind and he stepped
down. Jesus the God man and the prophet Isaiah
said that even he, the God man, Jesus was a man
of sorrows acquainted with grief. But here is
an important distinction that we need to make.
Jesus's compassion for the crowd, Jesus's compassion
for people is not the same thing as what our
culture might call empathy. Right now we live
in a world that has elevated empathy to the highest
moral good. If you love me, you'll feel what
I feel. You'll never try to change me. Instead,
you'll affirm what I want. You'll never tell
me I'm wrong. But that kind of empathy isn't
compassion at all. It's emotional agreement without
any moral direction. It's what some have come
to call the sin of empathy. or more recently,
suicidal empathy, because it asks us to drown
with people rather than rescue them. And Jesus
doesn't do that. He feels deeply, but he also
feels truthfully. His compassion is not an emotional
mirror. It's a holy love that moves him toward
healing, toward truth, toward redemption. Jesus'
compassion doesn't collapse under the weight
of people's desires. Instead it stands true under
the weight of their need. And after seeing the
crowds and feeling this gut level compassion,
Jesus then turns to his disciples and says, the
harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Ask the Lord of the harvest. to send out workers.
And so today we're gonna explore how this introduction
to this prayer pushes us out of our Western comforts
and our predictable routines and instead thrust
us into a world that Jesus died to save. Let's
go, okay, let's go on this journey. And I'm gonna
ask you this question to start off. Are you willing
for God to disrupt your comfort so you can join
him in the harvest? If you're taking notes, the
first point I'll have you write down. Are you
willing for God to disrupt your comforts to join
him in the harvest? The first point is Jesus'
gut level compassion. Number one, out of verse
36, when Matthew tells us that Jesus had compassion
on them, we can't read this in some sort of flat
hallmark card style way. Jesus uses one of the
strongest emotional words in Greek. It actually
sounds kind of funky even. It's splak nizomai,
splak nizomai in Greek. And what it means is
it means your stomach turns, your intestines
twist, your insides. It's a gut punch. Jesus,
when it says he had compassion on the crowd,
the word is his stomach turned, his insides twisted.
He had a gut punch as he saw. You can feel it
physically. And this is the kind of reaction
you have when you see something so wrong, so
heartbreaking, so unjust that it hits you in
the gut before your mind even has time to process
it. And that's the way Jesus feels when he looks
at the crowds. Why does he feel this way? Well,
Matthew gives us three descriptions. He says,
Jesus feels this way because they were distressed.
And that word distress means wounded or troubled,
battered. It carries this idea of being beaten
down by life, beaten down by sin, beaten down
by shame and circumstances, by spiritual oppression.
He had compassion because they were distressed.
He had compassion because they were dejected,
which literally means thrown down. thrown down.
The picture is someone who's overwhelmed, so
overwhelmed that they can't stand up on their
own. It's not that they're weak, it's that they've
been overpowered. They were distressed and they
were dejected, but they were also like sheep
without a shepherd. No direction, no protection,
no one leading, guiding or guarding, correcting
and caring for them. And what's the point that
Matthew wants us to get? Well, when Jesus looks,
When Jesus looks at people, Jesus sees beneath
the surface. He doesn't see the well put together
married couple who everyone wants to be like.
He sees the pain and anxiety and exhaustion behind
the smile. He doesn't see the person who mocks
God. He sees the deep ache and turmoil that fuels
the mocking. Where we see crowds, Jesus sees
souls. Where we see problems, Jesus sees one
more person that he loves and will die for. And
that should lead us to ask an uncomfortable question,
but a necessary one. What happens in me when
I see the crowds? What stirs in my heart? Is
it compassion or is it annoyance? Is it love
or is it avoidance? What happens in me because
the truth is that our default setting is not
Jesus's compassion amen Our default setting is
not Jesus's compassion our default setting is
self -protection We feel overwhelmed by people's
problems. We feel under equipped to to deal with
them We we fear getting pulled into their mess.
We guard our comfort. We guard our privacy. We
guard our time And when we do feel something,
it's often shaped more by the world's definition
of empathy than by Jesus's compassion. Our culture
tells us empathy means feeling exactly what the
other person feels, affirming everything they
feel, agreeing with everything they want. But
listen, that's not true compassion. That's emotional
imitation without truth. It's sympathy without
discernment. It's what some have called this
sin of empathy or suicidal empathy, because it
leads us to collapse into someone else's emotional
world, even when their emotions are leading them
away from God. That kind of empathy asks you
to drown with someone instead of throwing them
a lifeline. It asks you to validate their hurt,
but never guide them toward truth. Never guide
them toward healing. It asks you to affirm their
self -destruction rather than call them toward
true life. Jesus doesn't do that. Jesus feels
deeply, but at the same time, he feels truthfully.
His compassion is not sentimental and it's not
blind. It's holy compassion. It's anchored in
truth. It moves him toward the person. Yes, absolutely.
But it also moves him to rescue the person from
the pit that they're in. This is the compassion
that moved him to enter our world. The love that
called him to bear our sins, carry our cross,
and rise for our salvation. C .S. Lewis once
put it this way, he said, love is not affectionate
feeling. Love is not affectionate feeling, but
a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate
good. You see, This is the compassion that's
born of love, that refuses to let sin destroy
us, even when we're convinced, committed, convicted
in ourselves, in our sin -distorted minds, to
walk right off the cliff of sin. And Jesus says,
I will enter the world with a kind of love and
compassion, not like the world's empathy, not
like the world's compassion. but a unique kind
of agape love, a love of self -sacrificing, laying
down my life for you that you might be plucked
from the pit, not left there. I'm not going to
join you there and just sit and swallow. We're
getting out of here. And Matthew wants us to
see that that's the heart of the kingdom of God.
And that's the heart of the King of the kingdom
of God, Jesus. Jesus has moved, he's deeply moved,
emotionally moved by the suffering of the people
in front of him. Jesus is so moved that he's
moved to act for their ultimate good, to rescue
them. And so Jesus's gut wrenching compassion,
number two, if you're taking notes, Jesus's diagnosis,
verse 37, after seeing Or after feeling this
gut -level compassion, he turns to his disciples
and he gives them an interpretation of what they're
seeing because the disciples don't yet understand.
They see a crowd and Jesus sees a harvest. They
see a crowd and Jesus sees a harvest. The harvest
is plentiful, but the workers are few. If you
and I were there standing beside Jesus, I'm not
sure that that would be our diagnosis. We might
say something like, Jesus, the need is too overwhelming.
The need is too overwhelming. Jesus, this is
way too much for us to handle. We're a small
little crew here, right? We do odd jobs, side
jobs. We don't do big jobs, right? This is a
big job, right? Or Jesus, some of us might be
standing next to Jesus and go, Jesus, really,
them? I don't know. I don't know if I want them
in the crew. But Jesus refused to call the crowds
a burden. He calls them a harvest. A harvest
is not a problem. A harvest is an opportunity.
And not just that, a harvest is a sign of God's
activity. He's already been preparing the hearts
long before we ever show up. Right? Cause a harvest
is a result of planting and watering. I don't
know if any of you guys have a green thumb. I
don't, but if you do, you know that you, you
get it after you plant and you water something,
then you harvest later. Right. And if there's
a harvest, if Jesus sees a harvest among the
crowds, then that means there's been someone
prepared it. There was activity before to prepare
the harvest to be brought in. Listen to this
friends to Jesus. The spiritual readiness of
the world is never the issue. To Jesus, the spiritual
readiness of the world is never an issue. People
are always searching and aching. People are always
hungry for truth and identity and belonging and
forgiveness and hope. The problem is not lack
of harvest. The problem is lack of workers. You
see, first off, Jesus sees spiritual hunger that
we overlook. We see a casual conversation and
Jesus sees an eternal door opening. We see a
coworker who can't stop venting and Jesus sees
a heart that is longing for hope. We see a neighbor
who keeps to himself and Jesus sees a man who
goes to bed lonely every single night. The harvest
is plentiful if we just look. Jesus also sees
opportunity where we see inconvenience. Many
times God puts people in our path that we interpret
as just interruptions. But interruptions were
often the very moments that Jesus used most powerfully
to advance the kingdom. The woman that we talked
about with the issue of blood. That was an interruption.
Jairus's daughter, blind Bartimaeus, Zacchaeus,
the crowds, the hungry crowds, all interruptions,
all divine appointments. And finally, Jesus sees
readiness where we feel resistance. For some
of us, we've bought the lie that people don't
want the gospel. We believe that people don't
want the gospel. But Jesus says the opposite.
People are more ready than you think. I've used
this stat before. Some of you guys have heard
it before. It just blows my mind every time I
read it. I read it again straight from the source
this morning. But 82 % of unchurched people said
they would go to church if someone would invite
them. 82 % of unchurched people said they would
go to church In other words, they would take
an action, take a step, seeking after truth if
someone would just invite them. And did you know
that same survey found that only 2 % of regular
church attenders regularly invite someone to
church. 82 % of un -churched people say they
would go, and only 2 % of church people ever
invite them. If that's not evidence of a harvest
field ready to be reaped, ready to be brought
in, and also an evidence of a lack of workers.
I don't know what is. There are prodigals that
are ready to come home if someone will just invite
them. There are weary souls ready to collapse
into grace if someone will just tell them it
exists. This old school quote from John Wesley,
he's gonna use words that you can kind of fudge
with a little bit. He'll say preachers, but he's
not really talking about preachers as in, what
I'm doing right now. He's talking about anyone
who will proclaim the kingdom, the good news
of the kingdom. And this is what he says, give
me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and
desire nothing but God. And I care not a straw,
whether they be clergymen or laymen, such alone
will shake the gates of hell and reveal the kingdom
of heaven on earth. Give me 100 people who will
go out and do it. What could happen in your neighborhood,
in your life, If just 100 of, I don't know how
many people are here right now, but a hundred
of us from village went out on mission, the kingdom
of God, to reveal what Christ is doing and invite
people into the good news of Jesus. Jesus looks
at the same world that you and I look at and
he says, the harvest is plentiful. God is doing
more than you think. God is working in people
that you've written off. God is drawing people
that you assumed were closed. and God is softening
hearts that we don't even notice. And if all
we see are problems, we will miss the harvest
that's standing right in front of us. Jesus turns
to his disciples who are ordinary, insecure,
and inconsistent people. And he says, I see a
harvest, but I don't see enough workers. Jesus
is preparing his disciples, and he's preparing
us for what comes next, a prayer. that is going
to interrupt our comfort and reorder our lives.
So if you're taking notes, the final point I'll
have you write is the disruptive prayer. He gives
the solution, and we might expect him to say,
well, the harvest is plentiful, the workers are
few, go. But he actually doesn't say that, not
yet. Instead, what he says is, therefore, pray
to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers
into his harvest. Pray to the Lord before Jesus
ever sends his disciples into the harvest in
chapter 10 the very next chapter He commands
them to pray for workers Why because mission
is never first a human strategy Mission the gospel
mission is never first a human strategy. The
gospel mission is first divine initiative The
harvest belongs to the Lord He prepares hearts
He owns and draws people. He brings conviction.
He awakens faith. And in fact, the word here
where it says, therefore pray the Lord to harvest
to send out workers. This is interesting. The
word that's used there in the Greek, it means
to thrust out, hurl, drive out with force, push
beyond resistance. So the prayer. That same word,
the send out word in Greek is the same word that
is used throughout the New Testament anytime
Jesus casts out demons. Anytime Jesus casts out
demons, it's the same word that's send out. The
same word for driving someone out of a place
they would not want to leave on their own, send
out. This is not a gentle nudge, friends. This
is not a polite invitation. The prayer that Jesus
instructs his disciples to pray is a prayer asking
God to forcefully disrupt the lives of his people
for the sake of the gospel. Forcefully disrupt
the lives of his people for the sake of the gospel.
Father, shove your people into the harvest field
because left to themselves, they won't go. Well,
why? Because we are naturally comfort seeking,
risk averse, control loving people, aren't we?
We like what is predictable. We want what is
safe. We settle into routines. We defend our
margins. We build comfortable pockets in our
Western lifestyle and call that stability. Jesus
says pray that God breaks that. Pray that God
disrupts it. Pray that God casts his people into
the mission field. But you know what, if we pray
that prayer honestly, it will cost us something.
Because it is impossible to pray for workers
in the harvest without becoming a part of the
answer to that prayer. You can't say to God,
your will be done without also saying, I desire
to do your will. Your will be done, but I desire
to do your will. This prayer is dangerous. This
prayer is dangerous because this prayer reorients
our life around God's mission. When we pray this
prayer, we are inviting God to do things like
this, rearrange our priorities, interrupt our
schedules, disrupt our job security, reassign
our comforts, break our apathy, expand our capacity
to love, wake us up from spiritual dryness or
deadness, open our mouths when we'd rather be
silent. Friends, this prayer dismantles the false
and dangerous idea that following Jesus is primarily
about spiritual self -care. Yes, Jesus heals
and restores, but he doesn't call us into a life
of comfort. He calls us into a life on mission.
Christianity isn't a therapeutic escape from
the world. It's a spirit empowered sending out
into the world. And when we pray this prayer,
we're surrendering our preferences, our safety,
our comfort to the greater work of the kingdom.
Jesus doesn't form consumers. Jesus forms workers.
Say that again. He doesn't form consumers. He
forms workers. Amen? And Jesus says the harvest
is overflowing with people. who don't yet know
Him, and our comfort cannot be more important
than their eternity. We want nice routines, predictable
rhythms, hear me out, I love it. Control over
my calendar, enough margin to protect my peace,
margin in every area of my life to protect my
peace. I want that too, but Jesus wants our availability,
He wants our obedience, He wants our surrender,
He wants our willingness to be sent. The kingdom
of God is good news for the world. But it is
also a sort of division to rouse the complacent.
Prayer changes what we see. It widens our vision,
it softens our heart, it moves us from someone
else should go and do something about that to
here I am Lord, send me. And ultimately this
prayer, beyond all of that, is really at its
base about becoming like Jesus. Who wants to
become like Jesus? Anyone? Anyone who would be
formed and shaped to become like Jesus? He's
better than I am. I wanna become like him. This
prayer, this prayer that he's saying to thrust
people out into the harvest field that is ultimately
answered by us. That's the secret part. That's
the chapter 10 part. He tells them to pray for
people to be thrust out. And then he turns back
to them and says, you're the answer to that prayer.
And you're not going to take anything that's
going to give you security. You're not going
to take anything that is going to help provide
for you. You're going to go out empty handed,
and I'm going to sustain you through it. And
I think the kingdom of God, man, sometimes it
is good news. But to the complacent, to those
who have said, I will follow, but then sit on
their butt, it is like a sword of division. that
comes in and thrusts in and says, hey, I'm gonna
wake you from your complacent. You need to choose
today who you will serve, who you will surrender
to, who you will obey, who you will follow today.
Sometimes that gospel call comes in. That is
good news too, even if it doesn't feel like it.
Ultimately, the prayer is about becoming like
Jesus. You see, he was the worker, the father
sent into the harvest field. Jesus was the worker
who the Father sent. He left the comfort of heaven.
He was thrust into the brokenness of this world.
He moved toward the crowds, not away from them.
He entered into our suffering, the loneliness,
the sin and sickness. He preached the good news
of the kingdom of God. He healed the sick. He
took up the cross of our shame and suffering
in order to bring one more home to God. And so
you see the prayer is also about alignment. It's
about formation and discipleship. It's about
what it means to follow Jesus. We think follow
Jesus is just some super abstract thing, right?
Like I follow Jesus emotionally, right? And that's
it, right? I just follow. No, following Jesus
is heart, soul, mind, strength. It's the whole
thing. It's all of us. And to follow Jesus is
not just some mere abstract Ouija board. Christian
Ouija board like, what do you want me to, it's
look to Jesus, look what Jesus did, imitate Jesus,
be like Jesus. And so when he went and preached,
what should we be doing people? Preach the good
news of the kingdom of God wherever we go. When
he bound up the wounded, what should we do? Bind
up the wounds, break the chains of bondage. That's
what we should do because it's ultimately about
alignment, formation and discipleship. What it
means to follow Jesus and allow his heart to
be shaped in us. allowing him to work in us until
compassion leads to prayer and prayer leads to
mission. Are you willing for God to interrupt
you? Are we willing for God to break our routines?
Are we willing for God to make us uncomfortable
now for the sake of eternal joy? Sign me up.
And I won't regret it later. The moment we begin
praying this prayer, God will begin to answer
it in us and through us. And so in conclusion
today, Matthew 9, 35 through 38 doesn't end with
a command to go. It actually comes in the next
chapter. It ends with an invitation for us to
pray. And that is where the application begins.
We began by saying, we need to pray for Jesus's
heart to form in us. If we look at the crowds
and all we feel is indifference or worse, then
we haven't yet had the gut punch of compassion
that Jesus felt. We need that. Mission without
that is not going to be effective. That's why
we have to pray first. Before God sends us into
the harvest, he has to shape our hearts to match
his heart. And some of us, need to pray. Some
of us need to pray, Jesus, let me see people
the way that you see people. Some of us need
to pray, give me that gut punch of your compassion.
And some of us need to pray, break the cynicism
in my heart. I'm telling you, some of us are
predisposed to only think of others as swindlers
and players and frauds. We look at this world,
we walk the streets, we're in the mall, wherever
we're at. Is the mall even a real thing anymore?
Does it exist? Whatever the mall equivalent is
today. I guess you don't have to deal with that
if you're ordering from Amazon. That's all we
do. Wherever you're at. If your natural course
of action is to think, oh, that person over there,
or they must be this, or that, you know, you
see the homeless that are in our area, in our
neighborhood, and your heart is hard toward them,
and you think, man, that person clearly couldn't
get their life together. Or, oh, they must be
a drug addict, and so I'm not even going, somehow
that's dismissive to me. And I walk around with
this sort of cynicism, this sort of indifference.
We're praying that God would change that. The
reason we would even see that way, the reason
we can't see people that the way that they are
is because we don't have the eyes of the spirit
to see beneath. I don't know about you. Oftentimes
what we see is what someone will come at us and
we'll see what's on the surface and we'll get
fearful or offended or we won't like someone
because what's on the surface. But the key with
Jesus is he could see beneath the surface. He
can see beneath the surface. And we can't do
that on our own, but by the Spirit we can see
beneath the surface. We can begin to pray and
say, Lord, what is lingering underneath this
thing on the outside? What is the thing that
I can pray for? What is the thing that I can
come and bring the kingdom to? We don't start
by trying harder. We start by asking him to reshape
our hearts to see with the same compassion and
love that he has. And next you have to expect
that God is going to answer the prayers that
you pray through you. Be prepared for it. Get
ready. You begin to pray the prayer Jesus instructed,
commanded us to pray. Get ready to be the answer
to that prayer. And you'll begin to see by the
Holy Spirit, people, the neighbor who keeps walking
by, the coworker who starts to hint at spiritual
things. the family who's in crisis, the person
at village who looks alone, the friend who keeps
texting at the most inconvenient hour, because
they're drowning inside. And they don't know
how to say that. But by the Spirit, we can pray
and ask for discernment. Help me to see that,
so I know how to deal with this. how to bring
the kingdom to it. The Spirit will bring them
to mind and because they are part of the harvest
that Jesus sees. And finally, friends, you don't
need a microphone. You don't need a title. You
don't need a platform. You don't even need training.
I lived in a time where we had like evangelism
training or something like that. You don't even
need it. You don't need it. You just need to
start being available to do what Spirit -filled
disciples do. And that is ask questions like,
hey, can I pray for you? Or listen well to see
what's underneath the surface. Or invite someone
to come with you on the spiritual journey of
seeking Christ together, be it at home in a Bible
study or here at church. Or share your story
or become a bridge in their life to something
better. To interrupt your routine long enough
to care. Because sometimes the smallest step
that you take is the moment God uses to bring
someone else the final mile home. We need to
take those steps, don't we? This whole story,
the crowds, the compassion, the harvest, the
prayer, it's not first and foremost about what
we do. It's about what Jesus did. He didn't just
feel compassion from a distance. He didn't just
diagnose the harvest. He didn't just. pray for
work as he himself was the worker the Father
sent. He was thrust out from heaven into the
world, thrown into our brokenness, driven by
love into the deepest darkness and sent to rescue
sinners like you and me. Sent to gather one more
wandering soul, a shepherd for those who had
no shepherd. And now the risen Jesus looks at
us. his church, his people, his disciples, you
and I, and he says, will you join me? Will you
join me in bringing the kingdom to this reality,
to this world? See what I see, feel what I feel,
and do what I do. The world around us right here
in Sacramento is full of people that Jesus sees
with that punch in the gut kind of compassion.
May village be a church that sees them too. And
may God send us out forcefully, joyfully, and
urgently into his harvest. Will you join me in
praying?